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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22532944">Bring Flours</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux'>imaginary_golux</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops &amp; Cafés, Flirting, Fluff, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 12:42:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,879</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22532944</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Maia has never actually met his favorite customer - he mostly works in the back of his small bakery, not the counter. But sometimes he has to cover Cala's breaks...</p>
<p>Beta by my darling Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cala Athmaza &amp; Maia Drazhar, Cala Athmaza/Deret Beshelar, Csevet Aisava/Maia Drazhar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>115</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>February Ficlet Challenge 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bring Flours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maia is immensely proud of his little bakery, Chenelo’s. It’s maybe not the smartest way to use the money he got from his father - the money which Setheris was very clear was meant to make sure Maia never tried to claim his <em>real</em> inheritance - but though Maia knows all the statistics about small restaurants going under, Chenelo’s has been in the black for four months, and Cala pokes his head into the kitchen every hour or so to pass along a different customer’s compliments.</p>
<p>Cala was a godsend of a find: cheerful, competent, friendly, and not even a little bit intimidating. He turned up the day after Maia put a little <em>Help Wanted</em> sign in the window, during a rush no less, and slid behind the counter to start plating food and pulling drinks without even hesitating. Maia hired him as soon as the rush died down and hasn’t regretted it for a moment. He’s not sure he and Cala are precisely <em>friends</em>, but the gawky, disheveled man is the closest thing Maia’s ever had.</p>
<p>He’s also kind enough to time his morning break for the slowest part of the morning, so Maia only has to talk to a few people during the half hour Cala is off...annoying, or possibly flirting with...the police officer who always just happens to be on <em>his</em> break at the same time. Maia does not pretend to understand what’s going on there, but they both seem happy, or at least pleased to be grumpy, so he stays well out of it. He wouldn’t know how to start teasing Cala anyhow.</p>
<p>There’s been one customer coming since the week after Maia first opened the bakery - the week Maia hired Cala, in fact - who might be Maia’s favorite, despite the fact that Maia has never actually seen him. He always comes in around nine, and orders a peppered hot chocolate and one of the little Anverneise-spiced cakes that Maia is constantly tinkering with to improve, and sends Cala back with his most sincere compliments to the baker, always couched in the most impeccably polite and remarkably beautiful language. Unfortunately, Maia is usually wrist-deep in whatever he’s making for the lunch crowd, and can never come out and thank the man himself.</p>
<p>He doesn’t even notice the morning his favorite customer doesn’t come in at his usual time, because he’s fighting with the filling for the venison buns, which is being recalcitrant, and by the time he’s gotten it tasting right and the buns in the oven, it’s time to cover Cala’s break.</p>
<p>Maia should maybe hire more help, but he’s slightly terrified of giving interviews. He’s probably just going to tell Cala to bring by the friend he’s mentioned a few times, Kiru, who needs afternoon shifts to fill in around her work at a nearby hospital. If she’s as competent as Cala says she is, she’ll be perfect.</p>
<p>There are usually only two or three customers during Cala’s break, and Maia knows them all by sight. The man who comes in around ten-fifteen, looking slightly flustered, is not familiar. He’s full-blood elvish, very pale, with eyes somewhere between blue and grey, so pale it’s hard to tell, and he’s turned out impeccably, not a speck of dust anywhere or a single seam less than utterly straight. He orders a peppered hot chocolate and an Anverneise cake, and has exact change ready. Maia plates the cake and moves to pour the hot chocolate, and the man takes a delicate forkful of the cake and says, “And please tell the baker for us that this is, as always, the highlight of our day and the most delicious thing we have ever tasted. This may be the finest rendition yet.”</p>
<p>Maia’s shoulders hunch a little, and he can feel his cheeks heating. “We thank you,” he says, handing the chocolate across the counter. “We have been working on improving the recipe for some time.”</p>
<p>The man’s eyes go wide and his ears go up in surprise. “You are the baker? You have a veritable gift; we have never tasted such delightful cakes as you make.”</p>
<p>Maia <em>knows</em> he’s blushing dark enough for the man to see it. “We are very pleased you enjoy them,” he says awkwardly. “Your compliments are often the highlights of our days.”</p>
<p>His favorite customer flushes delicately pink. “We have rather hoped to meet you to give them in person,” he admits, “but your usual assistant has always demurred. We were hoping our words were not offensive to you.”</p>
<p>Maia shakes his head hurriedly. “Nothing like that, we assure you! It is only that we are always quite busy when you usually come in, and we cannot quickly get away from our work, and are not quite...presentable when we do.” He hesitates, then adds tentatively, “We cover our assistant’s break from ten until ten-thirty every day.”</p>
<p>His favorite customer’s ears perk up. “Is that so? We shall remember that.” He holds a hand across the counter. “We are Csevet.”</p>
<p>Maia takes it, immensely grateful that Csevet did not give his family name, and so Maia doesn’t have to either. “We are Maia, and we are - we are very pleased to meet you.”</p>
<p>“Likewise,” Csevet says warmly.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Csevet comes in at ten oh five every morning for the next month, and Maia starts having a cake plated and a mug ready for the peppered hot chocolate. Csevet always takes a forkful of the cake, gives Maia a compliment on it, and then moves down to the end of the counter to eat his cake and drink his chocolate and talk to Maia.</p>
<p>Maia learns that Csevet is only a year older than he is, but has a position as Assistant to the Executive Assistant for Uleris Chavar, whose offices are just down the block. Csevet seems to do most of the Executive Assistant’s work in addition to his own, from his occasional wry comments, and he’s <em>terrifyingly</em> organized. Maia’s caught a glimpse of Csevet’s planner, and it’s laid out in beautiful perfection, impeccable handwriting in tidy columns, meetings sketched in as shaded blocks, deadlines etched in barzhad so they stand out.</p>
<p>Maia’s own bookkeeping is tidy, but nothing like <em>that</em>.</p>
<p>Csevet is also funny, and kind, and earnest, and speaks fondly of a large circle of friends. Maia likes to listen to him talk, his little anecdotes about friends’ antics or rants about the inefficiency of some other department always compelling. And to Maia’s bafflement, he likes to hear <em>Maia</em> talk, asking questions about the recipes Maia’s invented or improved, what Maia does on his days off, what Maia likes to read. Maia is painfully aware that he is a homebody, with no exciting stories like Csevet’s of going out drinking with friends or adventuresome weekends hiking. He goes to the library sometimes; he visits the tiny Barizheise temple; he occasionally goes to the michen-opera, and even that was a revelation after the bleak joylessness of his foster home. But Csevet seems as interested in Maia’s little pastimes as Maia is in <em>his</em> more exciting life. Maia finds himself exploring a little more in the evenings, finding little shops or galleries that he can tell Csevet about the next day. Csevet, he notices, has started reading things Maia has mentioned liking, and compliments Maia’s taste in literature more than once.</p>
<p>“Th’art smitten,” Cala teases gently as they’re closing up one afternoon. “Thou wilt blush hot enough to cook thy cakes, one of these days.”</p>
<p>Maia presses his hands to his cheeks. “Oh, don’t tease,” he says. “It’s but a passing foolishness.”</p>
<p>“I would not tease if I did not think <em>he</em> was smitten too,” Cala says, turning to face Maia quite seriously. “Dost think he spent his entire break talking to <em>me</em>? Nay, he paid and found a table, and the most he ever spoke to me was in his compliments to <em>thee</em>.”</p>
<p>“He’s friendly,” Maia says, not daring to hope. “Tis no more than that, surely.”</p>
<p>“Maia, my friend,” Cala says, and Maia is as struck by <em>that</em> as by the following words, “there is friendly, and there is flirting, and he is flirting with thee. Very gently, I allow; I think he fears to scare thee.”</p>
<p>“Oh dear,” Maia says, and sits down on a nearby chair, head spinning in confusion. “What shall I do?”</p>
<p>“Well, dost want to flirt with <em>him</em>?” Cala asks. “I do not think he will press unless thou givest him some encouragement.”</p>
<p>“Hast been watching us so closely?” Maia asks, embarrassed all over again.</p>
<p>“Deret and I want thee to be safe and happy,” Cala says, utterly unashamed.</p>
<p>“Oh, is <em>that</em> his name,” Maia says absently. He’s never actually <em>spoken</em> to Cala’s police officer, though once he saw the name-badge on the man’s shoulder read <em>Lieutenant Beshelar</em>.</p>
<p>Cala shakes his head. “Thou shalt not distract me so easily! <em>Dost</em> want to flirt with him?”</p>
<p>“Perhaps,” says Maia, and gets to his feet, turning to the afternoon’s cleaning with fierce concentration. Cala kindly drops the subject...though Maia suspects he’ll bring it up again at some point, if Maia doesn’t act.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>The next day, Maia takes a deep breath as Csevet comes in. If this doesn’t work, he’ll just...see if Cala will be willing to move his break a little. Or hire Kiru. Or something.</p>
<p>Csevet reaches the counter and holds out his hand, exact change ready, and Maia shakes his head as he holds out the cake and peppered hot chocolate. “On the - on the house today,” he says.</p>
<p>Csevet’s ears go up in surprise. There’s a brief, breathless pause. And then Csevet says, “Thank you. Might we pay you back? Perhaps with dinner? There is a very good Barizheise place around the corner.”</p>
<p>Maia swallows. “We would - <em>I</em> would like that very much.”</p>
<p>Csevet’s smile is broad and unguarded and lovely. “Oh good,” he says, and his fingers brush Maia’s as he takes the plate and mug, and he blushes like sunrise. They stand there staring at each other for a long moment, until outside the shop, Cala’s Deret coughs loudly, and they both jump.</p>
<p>Maia doesn’t dare look: he is absolutely sure Cala and Deret are <em>both</em> watching them through the broad window, and he doesn’t want to see the smug expression Cala must be wearing. “Shall I meet thee here at five thirty?” Csevet says, sounding rather flustered.</p>
<p>“Yes,” Maia says, and thank the goddesses, someone comes into the shop with an order, and Csevet moves down to his normal spot at the end of the counter, and they both have a few minutes to get their composure back.</p>
<p>They <em>do</em> manage to actually have a conversation once the other customer leaves, but for the life of him, Maia can’t remember anything about it except that every time they meet each other’s eyes, they both blush, and Csevet promises to be back promptly at five thirty before he leaves.</p>
<p>When Cala comes back in, he claps Maia gently on the shoulder and says, “Well done!” and Maia flees back into the bakery, ears hot, and spends the rest of the day grinning stupidly at his hands as he works.</p>
<p>He has a <em>date</em>. With <em>Csevet</em>.</p>
<p>Maybe he should bring a cake.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Written for the FFC 2020 Prompt "Bakery/Coffeeshop AU."</p></blockquote></div></div>
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